Josh Byrnes could have done something. Just about every seamhead south of Point Barrow thought he would. And yet by doing nothing the Padres’ general manager did plenty. He made a statement. Baseball’s trade deadline came and went, and Byrnes decided to stand pat while the big boys were trying to deal without raising the stakes. He didn’t want any new cards.

Good for him. Josh Byrnes is showing me something. The man has a spine, and he proved it with a great July. If there was a sign of weakness, he sure didn’t show it to anyone who might take advantage of it, blocking it with great restraint.

There are GMs who like to see their names in the paper. Jack McKeon reveled in his “Trader Jack” handle and did everything he could to let the media know he was around and ready to swap — even if he shouldn’t have been ready to trade, which was often.

Byrnes has learned the art of the deal. He is unafraid. In fact, there are those who believe he gambles too much. But not this time. Rumors he would deal third baseman Chase Headley before the Tuesday trade deadline were so strong it seemed Headley was starting them himself. Third basemen are in short supply this season. Chase was going somewhere, no?

Byrnes, experienced in the art of the deal, would have squeezed the trigger, but he set his sights high and “we weren’t getting value back.” That’s how it’s supposed to work. You don’t give away players for the sake of giving them away.

Back in 1993, the Braves wanted Padres first baseman Fred McGriff. Wanted him desperately, and Atlanta’s farm system was loaded with prospects. But the Tom Werner fire sale was burning hot, so McGriff was sent to the Braves for Melvin Nieves, who came cheap, stunk, and was out of here in 1995.

I still wonder if Atlanta might have sent Chipper Jones (in the minors then) to San Diego if the Padres held out long enough. That’s how badly they wanted Fred. If not the worst trade in franchise history, it’s leaning at the tape, but fault was on ownership, not the GM or baseball ops.

What a professional July for Byrnes. He extended the contracts of left fielder Carlos Quentin and closer Huston Street and refused to give away Headley, who isn’t Mike Schmidt but may be his most reliable position player. If you’ve never seen an inning in your life, you have to know the Padres are better with these three than without them. Plus, they are not ready for retirement.

“I think it’s harder when you’re a buyer, and I’ve been a buyer,” says Byrnes, who GMed in Arizona before moving here. “In my experience, urgency comes when you’re in a race (and the Pads definitely are not). We had a lot of ideas and there were a lot of proposals, but it didn’t happen. I think we can go 40-20 the rest of the way and we’re not going to catch up. I don’t think the math works.

“I’d say out of every five deals proposed we might have been close on one. Just when an idea begins to make sense it’s stopped at the 5-yard line.”

Byrnes can walk between baseball conservatism and liberalism, but he isn’t afraid to deal when his gut tells him it’s right. Maybe he lives by the line in “The Maltese Falcon,” when Bogie tells that greatest of all screen liars, Mary Astor: “I won’t play the sap for you.”

“I think we made seven trades during the offseason,” Byrnes says. “I’ve been called everything from patient to being too aggressive. One real change I’ve seen is that people really are clinging to prospects. It’s the age of scrutiny. If you trade away a prospect who turns out to be good you’ll never hear the end of it. But I am pretty aggressive in my history.

“It all comes down to where you are as an organization. We have some good young guys and some room in the payroll. We’re open to trade. But we saw nothing great this time and didn’t do anything.”

July was even more interesting because John Moores’ interminably impending sale of his majority ownership to the O’Malley family continues to be interminably impending. But just when everyone thought Byrnes would be trading away the likes of Quentin, Street and Headley to cut payroll, he increased it.

“There has been great communication through (club President) Tom Garfinkel and John Moores and the prospective owners to make sure everyone understands,” Byrnes says. “We got the green light. I think you won them over when you wrote that column saying we shouldn’t trade Quentin (much laughter on both sides).

“But we’re a better team with Quentin and Street. We might be right and we might be wrong, but these are good players. They like it here and they wanted to stay. We’ve had a better lineup on the field and we have a better bench. No question, we’re playing more fearlessly, with more style.”

Little reason to break it up now, although it’s still possible a player such as Headley could be traded through waivers after the deadline.

“I’ve made two deals after the trade deadline (for Livan Hernandez and Adam Dunn, both when he was in Arizona and in contention),” Byrnes says. “So it’s still possible. But pretty unlikely.

“My job is to predict the future. It’s hard to predict the future.”

Josh Byrnes, wannabe swami, is a smart guy. Here’s hoping the new owners — where are they? — know smart when they see it.